Canada Atlantic Railway
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Western Subdivision

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Western Division
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Almonte GazetteEganville EnterpriseHuntsville ForesterMercuryOttawa CitizenOttawa Free PressOttawa Journal
History
37 facts
DateStatementSourceStatus
1895-07-19The O.A & P.S. R.R. is now graded from end to end. 2000 men have been at work on it. It is expected that trains will be running 164 miles distant from Ottawa by Oct. 1st. Almonte Gazette 1895-07-19(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher, Ottawa Railway H...)
1895-07-26O.A. & P.S. Construction Notes. Messrs. D.R. McDonald and McMaster will finish the grading on the first ten miles shortly. Already the steel is laid across Mud Bay although the steam shovel is still working at a cut below that point; a second shovel has begun work on a good pit on the shore of the bay. Messrs. O'Neill & Ferguson had over 400 men on the second ten miles and are pushing the work to completion. A young Frenchman who had been away from friends for almost five years was drowned at camp No. 4 on Saturday — the second drowning accident at the same place. Almonte Gazette 1895-07-26(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher, Ottawa Railway H...)
1895-09-03Mr. Wm. Heald, contractor on the western section of the O.A. & P.S. railway, is in the city at the Russell. On his contract on the western division about 200 hands are employed and the construction of the railway is progressing satisfactorily. It is expected that the gap will be closed on the 15th of November. Ottawa Citizen 1895-09-03(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher, Ottawa Railway H...)
1895-09-20Next week all the construction camps along the O.A. & P.S. Ry. will be closed as the season's work will then be about ended. Chief Engineer Mountain went up the line today to inspect the last of the work. Nearly all of the men employed on the line have been discharged; there is now only one mile more of the road to be built on McNeil [sic] and Ferguson's contract, which will complete the season's work. Ottawa Journal 1895-09-20(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher, Ottawa Railway H...)
1895-10-04AT THE DOOR OF PARRY SOUND: Contractor Plouf, of the OA & PS Ry., who has the contract for the construction of the last ten miles at the western end of the line, is in the city today. The line is now built to within a mile of the town of Parry Sound, and within a few weeks it will be completed. The terminus of the line will be on an island in the Georgian Bay in front of the town, forming a breakwater with an excellent land locked harbour where the great shipping vessels of the lake could lie at anchor; the water is at least thirty feet deep all around the point of the railway terminus, so vessels can be loaded and unloaded to and from railway cars without inconvenience. Trains are now running over forty miles of the western end of the line. About six hundred men were employed on the construction this summer. Ottawa Journal 1895-10-04(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher, Ottawa Railway H...),Almonte Gazette 1895-10-11(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher, Ottawa Railway H...)
1895-10-12There are still about seven miles of rails to be laid on the eastern end, but after this is done the season's work will be finished. Ottawa Journal 1895-10-12(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher, Ottawa Railway H...)
1895-10-18Work on the railway is being pushed along as fast as circumstances will warrant. The rock cutting is almost completed, and teams are now busy lowering the swamp near the Rose Point Hotel, which has to be taken down some thirteen feet. Filling up Willet's lake has been abandoned and workmen are now engaged in driving piles for a bridge across the lake. At the other end of the section the gravel train is busy ballasting and this part of the work will be pushed forward as rapidly as possible. Several times lately the sound of the locomotive whistle has been heard in town, giving Parry Sound notice that the long looked for railway is almost at its door. Last week Post Office Inspector Jones arranged for the dispatch of daily mails over the Parry Sound Railway between Parry Sound and Emsdale, Sprucedale and Seguin. Huntsville Forester 1895-10-18(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher, Ottawa Railway H...)
1895-11-01The season's operations on the OA & PS Ry. are at an end. The force of men employed on the construction all summer have been laid off. All the camps are empty with the exception of a few straggling ones that house a small party of men that remain to finish the ballasting. Huntsville Forester 1895-11-08(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher, Ottawa Railway H...)
1895-12-13Mr. Cuddy, Dominion Inspector of Railways, and Mr. McCallum, Ontario Inspector of Railways, with a number of leading officials of the OA & PS R., recently inspected the last ten miles of the road between White Fish Lake and Cache Lake. They found everything satisfactory. The road is now completed to 168 miles from Ottawa. Eganville Enterprise 1895-12-13(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher, Ottawa Railway H...)
1896-01-24Mr. E. Fauquier, of Toronto, has been given the contract of constructing the incompleted 47 miles of the Parry Sound Railway. The uncompleted portion lies between Lake of the Two Rivers of the eastern line and Scotia station of the western line. Work will be commenced early, as Mr. Booth is anxious to have the line completed by the fall. (The Huntsville Forester of 26 February adds that the contract 'was let to E. F. Fauquier of Toronto, at a figure close to half a million dollars.')
Filed on the Western Subdivision because the 47-mile gap (Scotia to Lake of Two Rivers) lies within its mileposts; the source names the line, not a subdivision.
Ottawa Citizen 1896-01-24(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher in 'Local Railway...),Huntsville Forester 1896-02-26(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher in 'Local Railway...)
1896-01-31Tomorrow Mr. J. R. Booth will send a gang of men to his Egan limits on the Madawaska ... The men will take out a quantity of dimension timber, which will be shipped to Ottawa by the Parry Sound road, and run right to Mr. Booth's yards at the Chaudiere. The Parry Sound railway runs through the Egan limits.
Announcement of a planned experiment ('will send', 'is to be made'); the source does not report its outcome. Egan Estate lies on the Western Subdivision.
Ottawa Journal 1896-01-31(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher in 'Local Railway...)
1896-02-07Mr. Fauquier has to put in for his works on the O.A. & P.S. Ry. construction, 600 tons of provisions and hay. A road has to be cut for a distance of 27 miles and all the material has to be in before the winter roads break up. Men are now busy cutting out the road. D.D. McDonald & Co. contractors for the first ten miles have also put in 200 tons of material. Over one hundred men are already at work and more are daily going up. Mr. C. Campbell of Eganville, has one large camp at the end of iron and will soon have two more in running order further west.
The Renfrew Mercury of 1896-02-14 gives the road as 37 miles rather than 27.
Ottawa Journal 1896-02-07(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher in 'Local Railway...),Mercury 1896-02-14(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher in 'Local Railway...)
1896-02-14Of the 47 miles, D.D. MacDonald and Murdoch have the first ten miles; O'Neill & Ferguson the next twelve miles; five remain unlet, and Poulin and Fitzpatrick have twenty miles on the other end of the work. Already the engineers have gone in with their staffs, and supplies for building camps are coming up the line.
'The contract for the last section of the O.,A. & .P.S R.R. has been given to Mr. Fauqier' precedes this passage in the source.
Almonte Gazette 1896-02-14(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher in 'Local Railway...)
1896-02-14Supplies are taken to the American camps on the Upper Lakes by the last twenty miles of railway above Whitney. Even some of McLaughlin's camps on the Petewawa received their supplies by the railway. Almonte Gazette 1896-02-14(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher in 'Local Railway...)
1896-02-14The commencement of work on the OA & PS construction will greatly benefit this section. A larger number of men than was ever known before have been unable to get employment in the shanties, and many of these will now get employment in cutting out the right-of-way and in the rock cuts. Mercury 1896-02-14(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher in 'Local Railway...)
1896-02-14Trains will be run in a few days from Emsdale into Parry Sound, a distance of over sixty miles. Mr. J. E. Switzer has gone up in charge of an engineering party, who will survey the line from Emsdale eastward until they meet the other party that is surveying westward.
Announcement of service to start ('will be run'); the source does not report that it did.
Mercury 1896-02-14(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher in 'Local Railway...)
1896-02-14≥Mr. A. W. Fleck, secretary-treasurer, and Mr. Geo. A. Mountain, chief engineer of the OA & PS Ry., returned last week from Parry Sound where they were representing the company at the inspection of the last part of the western end of the line by the Ontario and Dominion government engineers, which took place on Wednesday. Eight miles of line, which completes the line into the waters of the Georgian Bay at Parry Sound were inspected. Mr. Thomas Ridout was the engineer for the Dominion government, and Mr. McCallum represented the Ontario government. (As reported by 14 February 1896; the source dates the event only relatively.) Mercury 1896-02-14(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher in 'Local Railway...)
1896-03-04One hundred and fifty tons of dynamite will be used during the coming summer in the construction of the O.A. & P.S. Railway ... brought to Ottawa by C.P.R. and then carried over the O.A. & P.S. line by special train. From the present terminus at Cache Lake it will be drawn to the different magazines erected along the survey from that place to Elmsdale, an intervening distance of 47 miles. The magazines are to be built wherever possible on islands in the lakes some distance from the scene of operations. Ottawa Journal 1896-03-04(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher in 'Local Railway...)
1896-03-04Chief Engineer Mountain, who came down the line this morning, states that ten teams began distributing dynamite along the line from Cache Lake to Elmsdale today. He states that 150 teams and almost 600 men are now busy on the construction ... All the work is now under way. Rock cutting, pile driving, sand cuttings and clearing have commenced. Three pile drivers are at work. The camps along the line, about thirty in number, are now all completed and ready for occupancy. They will accommodate about 2,000 men. Ottawa Journal 1896-03-04(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher in 'Local Railway...)
1896-03-07Mr. Geo. Ferguson, of O'Neill & Ferguson, contractors on the OA & PS expansion, was in town this week. He informed The Mercury that actual construction work was being rapidly pushed to the last mile to Cache Lake, which the Company wish to be able to run to by the end of June. The piling of two bays of the lake is also being pushed along, while the ice lasts. Mercury 1896-03-07(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher in 'Local Railway...)
1896-03-20A large number of men are ging up the line to work on the railway, there being already some 400 at work.
Under a 'Whitney News' heading; wording as transcribed.
Almonte Gazette 1896-03-20(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher in 'Local Railway...)
1896-04-17It is expected that the grading will be finished across Cache Lake ready for the steel by the end of May. Almonte Gazette 1896-04-17(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher in 'Local Railway...)
1896-04-17Trains run from Whitney to the end of track Tuesdays and Fridays after the arrival of the mixed from Barry's Bay. Almonte Gazette 1896-04-17(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher in 'Local Railway...)
1896-04-17Chambers and Richardson, of Whitney, have the contract for the last section let by Mr. Fauqier, about 6 miles. Some 500 men are at work on the first 20 miles, and more are expected as soon as snow goes. ... Clearing the right of way and driving on the first 20 miles about finished. Almonte Gazette 1896-04-17(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher in 'Local Railway...)
1896-04-28The O.A. & P.S. Ry. is now accepting freight to a distance of twenty miles above Whitney. Ottawa Journal 1896-04-28(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher in 'Local Railway...)
1896-05-01The construction of the OA & PS Ry. goes rapidly on. The work of pile driving and clearing right of way is about finished. The track will be ready for the steel across Cache Lake by the middle of next month. The contractors have all their supplies in for the first twenty miles of this season's construction. Ottawa Journal 1896-05-01(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher in 'Local Railway...)
1896-05-17A daily train is now running between Eganville and Whitney.
Eganville lies on the Middle Subdivision and Whitney on the Western; filed on the Western Subdivision, where the train ran to its terminus.
Almonte Gazette 1896-05-17(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher in 'Local Railway...)
1896-09-09The OA & PS are now extending their telegraph line west of Cache Lake. ... The grading is now completed for one hundred and fifty miles west of Ottawa. Mercury 1896-09-09(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher in 'Local Railway...)
1896-09-18The steel is all laid on the OA & PS R. R. to within twenty-three miles of joining the ends on which work is proceeding, westward, and eastward, to and from Parry Sound. Some delay will be caused by extensive rock cutting yet to be done, but all is expected to be completed by the 1st of November. Mercury 1896-09-18(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher in 'Local Railway...)
1896-09-18End of the steel, Sept. 1 - Track laying began at this point on the 31st of August, and will probably be pushed through to Gilmour's Mill Junction by Sept. 19th. ... This covers the first to ten miles of construction this summer, which is being built by McDonald and Murdoch. Up to the present this distance had to be traveled on foot and by boat. On this nearly 1,000 men of all classes worked during the summer months.
From a 'Letter from Whitney' dated 7 September; wording 'first to ten miles' as transcribed.
Almonte Gazette 1896-09-18(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher in 'Local Railway...)
1896-09-28Through this twenty-mile gap, however, it is expected to have the line completed by the 20th October. To accomplish this feat construction work is being pushed from both ends, operations with steam drills, blasting and hoisting equipment having been in progress day and night continually for months past on Summit Cut in question. ... at what is known as 'Summit Cut,' for instance, there is a working of 2,000 feet in the sheer face of the mountain. Ottawa Citizen 1896-09-28(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher in 'Local Railway...)
1896-10-23The steel gang reached the summit cut at the end of O'Neill and Ferguson's section last week, and a portion of the gang is paid off. The large rock cut will probably be finished this week. Chambers and Richardson have completed their five - mile section. ... Snow fell on Saturday night and another fall came Monday morning. - the work of track-laying is almost completed.
From 'Upper O.,A. & P.S. Notes'; wording as transcribed.
Almonte Gazette 1896-10-23(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher in 'Local Railway...)
1896-11-02Chief Engineer Mountain explained that that statement was somewhat misleading, for although the track between Ottawa and Scotia, on the Grand Trunk Railway will be completed through, yet there remains to be constructed the bridge across the Sound and nearly four miles of track beyond, to the terminus at deep water on Georgian Bay. This track cannot be laid until the bridge is completed which will take some time yet.
Correcting the Journal's Saturday paragraph that the last spike would be driven on 2 November.
Ottawa Journal 1896-11-02(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher in 'Local Railway...)
1896-11-27≥W Crisper, aged about 25, a young man of Gloucester township, acting as brakesman on the Ottawa, Arnprior & Parry Sound railway, was killed on Monday afternoon at Sim's Pit, 150 miles up the line. No one witnessed the accident, but it is supposed that he was either walking alongside or on top of the flat cars and fell in between. The train was moving slowly at the time. The body of the unfortunate young man was cut in two so that death was instantaneous. An inquest was held Monday night, conducted by Mr. Simpson, Algonquin Park Commissioner ... the jury brought in a verdict of accidental death, attaching no blame whatsoever to the company. (As reported by 27 November 1896; the source dates the event only relatively.)
Sim's Pit has no entity; filed on the Western Subdivision at the maintainer's direction.
Almonte Gazette 1896-11-27(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher in 'Local Railway...)
1900-01-13A branch line known as the McAulay Central railroad has been built from a point five miles west of Madawaska up to the scene of lumbering operations in the shanties. The line is about ten miles in length and most effectively facilitates the traffic between Ottawa and the lumber camps.
A private connecting logging line, not the Canada Atlantic's own; recorded for the traffic it brings to the Western Division.
Ottawa Citizen 1900-01-13(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher in 'Local Railway...)
1900-02-10A steam shovel is being operated at Simm's pit. The station which was burned down at Racing River last week was simply a small office. The loss was inconsiderable and it will not be rebuilt until the spring.
'Racing River' is not matched to a site entity; filed on the Western Subdivision, where the Simm's pit steam shovel also worked.
Ottawa Free Press 1900-02-10(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher in 'Local Railway...)
1900-02-17There is an unusually large lumber traffic on the line of the CAR at present. About seventy-five car loads of logs are brought down daily over the McCauley Central which connects with the western division of the road. Ottawa Citizen 1900-02-17(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher in 'Local Railway...)